The Memoirs of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier (Library of by Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, Susana Rotker, Helen Lane

By Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, Susana Rotker, Helen Lane

On December 12, 1794, Fray Servando preached a sermon in Mexico urban claiming that the Indies have been switched over via St. Thomas lengthy sooner than the Spaniards arrived. as the Spanish brought up the "conversion of the heathen" because the justification in their conquest of the hot international, Servandos phrases have been deemed subversive. hence, he was once arrested via the Inquisition and exiled to Spainonly to flee and spend 10 years touring all through Europe, as none except a French priest. So begun the grand experience of Fray Servandos lifestyles, and of this gripping memoir. this is a call for participation challenging for any reader to withstand: a glimpse of the eu "Age of Enlightenment" during the eyes of a fugitive Mexican friar. Fray Servandos account of Europe is clear-sighted, hilarious--and by no means integrated within the shuttle literature of that period. during this memoir, one sees a portrait of manners and morals that could be a some distance cry from the "civilized" spirit that the Empire desired to impose on its Colonies. This booklet takes a glance at historical past from an upside-down viewpoint, asking this query: who have been the genuine savages, the colonizers themselves, or the intended "savages" they have been suffering to transform? After ten years, Fray Servando ultimately lower back domestic to an self sustaining Mexico, the place he served the hot govt earlier than his loss of life. Heretic and insurgent, fugitive and visionary, personality in a unique and father of his country--Fray Servando Teresa de Mier was once all of this stuff. This memoir actually captures the passionate spirit of a good looking guy.

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Extra resources for The Memoirs of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier (Library of Latin America)

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Hidalgo, a village priest with progressive ideas, led other priests in organizing a religious war to be waged by peasants, Indians and mestizos from Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco and Michoacan, assuring them that the authorities of the viceroyalty were backing the French and the liberals. The rebel sectors held High Masses and Te Deums in the cathedrals of Valladolid and Guadalajara; following the execution of Hidalgo, another priest, Jose Maria Morelos, took over as head of the movement. But all this happened later.

Perhaps the worst "accusation" that could be leveled against this complex figure, the one portrayed in the Memoirs and the one in real life, would be that he was so often in the wrong place, acting at the wrong time. Two events in his life will suffice as examples. The first: he was just beginning to be famous in Mexico when he delivered the public Editor's Introduction I xxxix sermon that was to cause him so many problems with the Inquisition; the sermon was intended to strengthen Creole pride in the face of Spanish colonial power, but instead of holding fast to local traditions, Mier criticized them, thereby antagonizing both the imperial authorities and many Creoles.

Edmundo O'Gorman, one of the great Mier specialists, describes him as a "champion of Independence" and furthermore as "punctilious with regard to his aristocratic lineage," ever loyal to his Catholic faith despite persecutions, so jealous of proper recognition of his academic degrees and of his prerogatives as the pope's domestic prelate that it pleased him to wear the dress of a bishop (which he was not). " O'Gorman criticizes the lack of unity of his works, the repetitions and inaccuracies, the exaggerated use of the first person; but he then immediately explains: Let them not be disdained for that reason.